Thursday, 21 November 2013

Jesse Gabrielle scored his first two career WHL
goals in Wednesday's loss in Medicine Hat.

Tommy Vannelli
scored a power-play goal 42 seconds into overtime to lift the Medicine Hat
Tigers to a 4-3 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday night.

The winning goal
came after Brandon captain Ryan Pulock was handed a questionable boarding
penalty with 29 seconds left in the third period.

“I struggle with
the call on Ryan Pulock with 30 seconds left,” said Brandon GM/Coach Kelly
McCrimmon on CKLQ’s post-game show, “That’s as textbook of an example of how
you want a defenceman to handle that player as you could possibly have so really
disappointed with that call.”

Miles Koules also
scored the game-tying goal for Medicine Hat with 3:15 left in the third period
while Brandon went 0-for-4 with the man advantage including three chances early
in the third including 68 seconds of 5-on-3.

“We knew coming
out of the intermission that we were starting with the full two minutes, then
had the 5-on-3 opportunity to try and go up by two,” said McCrimmon, “We just
didn’t make the plays that we needed to to capitalize.”

The loss snapped
Brandon’s four-game winning streak and also ruined a milestone game for Wheat
Kings’ rookie Jesse Gabrielle.

The 16-year old
played alongside 20-year olds Chad Robinson and Jens Meilleur for the second
straight game and scored the first two goals of his WHL career and set up Eric
Roy for Brandon’s other goal.

“Their line
supplied all of our offence, and nice goals and really good plays and they were
full marks,” said McCrimmon, “I thought Jesse had a really good game and
because he’s moved up a line, he gets to play a little bit more.”

Jordan Papirny
made his ninth straight start in goal for Brandon and finished with 26 saves in
the Wheat Kings’ net.

Brandon
(13-11-1-0) will continue their road trip this weekend with a doubleheader in
Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice on Friday and Saturday.

Chaff...former Wheat King Taylor Cooper was stretchered
off the ice during the first period in his Lethbridge debut Wednesday after
going into the end boards after beating out an icing call.Cooper later tweeted out that he had suffered
a concussion and a shoulder injury...Brandon product Carson Perreaux’s eighth
goal of the seasonwas the only one of
the game in Prince Albert’s 1-0 home-ice victory over Swift Current Wednesday.

I'd also like to say that although the call on Pulock was poor (IMO), Brandon's inability to capitalize on their power-play chances early in the third period was one of the main reasons they didn't win Wednesday.

Overall, I thought it was a fairly evenly played and entertaining game.

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About Me

I have been the voice of the Brandon Wheat Kings and Sports Director at CKLQ Radio in Brandon since 1993.
The purpose of my blog is to provide you with up-to-date Wheat Kings' news and items.
Thanks for visiting!